21:1 During David’s reign there was a famine for three consecutive years. So David inquired of the Lord. 1 The Lord said, “It is because of Saul and his bloodstained family, 2 because he murdered the Gibeonites.”
21:14 They buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the land of Benjamin at Zela in the grave of his father Kish. After they had done everything 3 that the king had commanded, God responded to their prayers 4 for the land.
1 tn Heb “sought the face of the
2 tn Heb “and the house of bloodshed.”
3 tc Many medieval Hebrew
4 tn Heb “was entreated.” The verb is an example of the so-called niphal tolerativum, with the sense that God allowed himself to be supplicated through prayer (cf. GKC 137 §51.c).